Specification of Frederick Bowman : re-carbonizing animal charcoal.

  • Bowman, Frederick.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Frederick Bowman : re-carbonizing animal charcoal. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Bowmans Improvement in the Process of Renewing theVirtues of Animal Charcoal. the back of the fire grate B a channel or flue D (1), D (2), rises, and thence goes away horizontally to the chimney E. The part D 1 of the said flue is covered with iron plates L, on which the recarbonization is effected, as will be herein-after more particularly described. The part D 2 of the flue is about six or seven inches higher than the part D 1 ; it is covered with plates of iron 5 J, K, on which the animal charcoal that is to be recarbonized is spread out. The plates L, J, K rest and are firmly fixed to the side walls of the flue Dl, D 2, forming a close cover or roof to the said flue, and the several outer or side plates are turned up at the edges, so that they make a sort of long tray, covering the whole length of the flue D 1, D 2, in which the animal charcoal 10 can be contained, see the Figures. The flame from the furnace A passes along the channel or flue Dl, D 2, and gives out its heat to the iron plates laid over it in proportion to the distances of the parts from the fire. The con¬ struction of this furnace is so simple and so apparent on the Drawing, that I need not enter into further description of it. In operating with it to effect the 15 said improvement, the wet animal charcoal which has been exhausted or impaired by previous use, and which it is intended to recarbonize, is spread out on the plates K nearest the chimney E, which are of course the least heated, and it is raked forward thence by degrees along the plates, covering the flue towards the fire, the layer of animal charcoal being all the time stirred 2G about, so as to expose all its particles to the heat to dry it, and also to the atmosphere, and to facilitate evaporation; an iron rake, such as is ordinarily used by stokers, will do very well for this purpose; as fast as the animal charcoal is raked away towards the fire end of the furnace, more wet animal charcoal must be laid on at the chimney or coolest end, to be in its turn 25 moved onwards, and so on. The layer of animal charcoal laid on the plates K should not be above four inches thick, or thereabouts, and in working it along towards the hot plates L, and also in working it while on those plates, care should be taken to keep it evenly spread to about the thickness named, for if a much greater thickness of animal charcoal be laid on the plates, the period 30 of attaining the requisite degree of heat for recarbonizing it will be retarded, and time and fuel consequently wasted. The operation must be conducted so that the animal charcoal shall get dried on the plates K and J, which I will call the drying plates, as it progresses along them, and shall be about dry by the time it gets to the end of the plates J, in order to be recarbonized on the 35 hot plates L, which I will call the carbonizing plates, and if the animal charcoal has been properly worked on the drying plates, not more than a few minutes exposure to the heat of the plates L will be requisite to carbonize it. No particular time can be laid down as proper for the exposure of the animal